Week of August 20, 2010

On the web at fundermentalist.com

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THIS WEEK

1.        JFNA SCORES IN D.C.

2.        UPDATE ON HADASSAH'S TOWER

3.        JEWISH HEROES II

4.        LIMMUD FSU IN THE HAMPTONS

5.        FREE HIGH HOLIDAY TICKETS IN NEW JERSEY

6.        A TICKETMASTER FOR NEW JERSEY

7.        LOOSE CHANGE

8.        GRANTS

9.        ACCOLADES

10.      COMINGS AND GOINGS

MENTAL NOTES

JFNA scores in D.C.: After the hoopla surrounding the first 40 signatories of the Bill Gates-Warren Buffet Giving Pledge, it seems we truly have entered the dog days of summer in the philanthropy world, with a critical mass of nonprofit workers on vacation. (Yes, even The Fundermentalist has scheduled a few scattered days off here and there.)

Still, last week, the Jewish nonprofit world received some pretty big news. Yes, it's a little dry, but a big deal for organizations providing care for the elderly and chronically infirm.

On Aug. 10, President Obama signed a bill into law that extends federal relief to individual states as part of the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, a part of the federal recovery package contained in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. The measure will pump billions of dollars into organizations that rely on payment from Medicaid.

The FMAP extension, which had been the top priority of the Jewish Federations of North America, is particularly important for Jewish federations and their partner agencies, as nearly $6 billion per year in government aid goes through Medicaid to Jewish hospitals, nursing homes, Jewish family service outposts and other social service agencies.

Jewish groups are breathing a sigh of relief over the enactment of a law that will save them $150 million to $200 million.

"Without these funds, states would have certainly cut back on their Medicaid programs, which would have had an adverse impact on how Jewish communal providers deliver needed care to their respective communities," said William Daroff, vice president for public policy and director of the Jewish Federations of North America's Washington office.

As part of the package, states will receive another $16 billion in aid to help them pay their portions of the total cost for Medicaid, on top of the $87 billion they already received under the original package. Under the federal recovery act, the money had to be spent by Jan. 1, 2011, which posed a problem for states, whose fiscal years run from July 1 through June 30.

Without the new law, states would have been left with gaping holes in their budgets for the second half of the fiscal year.

I spoke with a number of leaders of the nonprofits that potentially would have been hurt had the FMAP money run out at the end of this calendar year, and the general sentiment is that this would have been a killer.

These organizations, which rely on Medicaid and other state and federal funding, are already strapped, having endured cutbacks over the past two years as state budgets have suffered along with the economy.

The gist of how Medicaid works: State governments and the federal government split the bill. For wealthier states, like New York, the split is 50-50 in a normal year, but for states with poorer populations, like Florida and California, the federal government picks up a larger percentage of that split. But with the recession, almost every state has required more federal funding.

For the Jewish community -- increasingly skewed toward an older population, or, as some call it, "the aging tsumami" -- federal and state funding through Medicare is becoming more and more vital.

So a group like Jewish Home Lifecare, which provides skilled in-home care to some 9,000 New Yorkers, has had to cut its budget nine times, forcing the $300 million-per-year operation to excise more than 110 jobs and shutter two of its outpatient day-care facilities.

And that happened simply because even as its funding stayed flat, its needs have gone up.

Until last week, it was facing another $1.7 million in cuts - just part of the estimated $200 million Jewish organizations and institutions have lost in aggregate, according to JFNA estimates.

"It's a sigh of relief," said Jewish Home Lifecare CEO Audrey Weiner, even though she still faces $400,000 in cuts from other shortfalls.

Meanwhile, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, which helps about 100,000 Jews and non-Jews, has faced similar challenges. State and federal funding accounts for about a third of its $25 million budget, which covers counseling services, shelters, food pantries, and services for older adults and those with disabilities.

Over the past three years, the L.A. organization has had to cut services drastically, according to its director of public policy, Nancy Volpert.

"We have seen a doubling in need at our food pantries," Volpert told The Fundermentalist. "We were serving under 5,000 per month in December of 2007 and now have served as many as 10,500 in November of 2009 and are now at over 9,000 a month consistently."

The Fundermentalist's take: The successful effort to secure the FMAP extension casts a spotlight on what is something of an unsung hero of the federation system. Much is made of the $800 million to $1 billion that federations bring in through their annual campaigns each year, plus up to another $2 billion more that comes in through endowments and special campaigns and other fund-raising mechanisms. But the advocacy work that the Jewish Federations of North America does in Washington out-earns both of those combined, and by a significant margin -- between $6 billion and $10 billion per year that goes to help the neediest and most vulnerable in the Jewish community and the broader society.

Federation officials say that JFNA was one of 10 major groups, secular and faith-based, that lobbied Congress for the FMAP extension. Among the others, according to Jonathan Westin, JFNA's assistant director for legislative affairs, were Families USA: The Voice for Health Care Consumers; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the First Focus children's advocacy group; the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging; and the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

The success in getting the extension was a lesson in how federation advocacy can work.

The Jewish Federations of North America, which started its fight for the FMAP extension in January, created background materials and talking points that it distributed to local federations and Jewish community-relations councils, which then lobbied their own local congressional representatives. And in June, some 30 lay and professional leaders of the federation system flew to Washington from across the country for intense lobbying with government officials with whom they had strong connections.

"It showed a synergy between our lay and professional leaders," Westin said. "You had this common bond, and whether you were from a large or small community, it wasn't just about fighting for Medicaid needs, but about delivering needed services for those in need. That is our core mission."

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Update on Hadassah's Davidson Tower: We mentioned earlier this month that Hadassah hospital is putting on the full-court press in an attempt to finish its Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower in Ein Kerem.

The 19-floor tower, named for the mother of the late billionaire Bill Davidson, who helped jumpstart the project with a $75 million gift three years ago, is set to open its doors in 2012, just in time for Hadassah's 100th birthday.

But to finish it, Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, the parent organization of the hospital, will have to raise another $100 million to $150 million, according to its own estimates.

When construction on the building started in 2007, it was estimated that the 500-bed tower, with its five floors of surgical rooms, would cost about $215 million to $250 million. Three years later, Hadassah says it needs closer to $400 million to complete the project.

Hadassah officials insist that there have not been any setbacks and that the building is not going over cost. They say the original estimates were just that - estimates - and that early reports on the cost of the tower only accounted for the first two-thirds of the construction process.

When construction started, the tower was designed to be completed in three phases, according to Bonnie Lipton, chair of the building committee. The first two phases involved building the structure and completing several floors so that the new hospital wing could be opened with about 200 beds and with several departments, including gynecology, urology and orthopedics. By 2012, the first two phases of construction are expected to be complete. Hadassah has raised more than $220 million so far and, in January, the hospital approved a total budget of $318 million to complete both phases. Lipton estimates that phase three, which will include building the intensive-care unit and a number of underground surgical rooms, will cost about $25 million more, though that is just a ballpark number.

Lipton says she visits Jerusalem about seven times per year to check up on the building, which is already framed. Construction of the outer shell of the building started in June.

"It is massive and it is solid and it is staring to look like a hospital," she said. When it is complete, the building will have 12 aboveground floors and five underground floors; it will feature several atriums with different themes for patients and their families.

"It's very exciting, and it is a formidable challenge, and all I can say is that I hope we continue to move within the same efficient budget and without any of the surprises that can happen with construction," Lipton said.

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Jewish Heroes II: The Jewish Federations of North America this week launched the second go-round of its Jewish Community Heroes contest.

The online competition allows people to nominate those who they feel are doing important Jewish work. Open voting via Facebook will determine the 20 finalists. Then a panel of judges will select the winner, who takes home a $25,000 prize.

Last year, in its initial run, the JFNA contest attracted 500,000 votes. This year's winner will be announced at the federation system's annual conference, the General Assembly, scheduled for Nov. 7-9  in New Orleans.

This year's judges include Segway inventor Dean Kamen, filmmaker Tiffany Schlain, actor Elliot Gould, screenwriter/director Ethan Coen and four-time Olympic gold medal swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg.

For more, check out the contest's website: www.jewishcommunityheroes.org/content/main/.

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Limmud FSU in the Hamptons: While all seemed pretty quiet here in Manhattan last week, some 800 young Russian speakers were gathering in the vacation spot of Westhampton for the second Limmud FSU conference in New York.

The one-day event, held at the Hampton Synagogue in Westhampton Beach, was based on the same model as the larger Limmud NY and Limmud FSU gatherings. It featured some 65 grassroots-organized learning sessions that ranged in topic from the delegitimizing of Israel to Jewish cooking to Russian-Jewish poetry. The daylong celebration of Russian-Jewish-American culture, which attracted a number of prominent Russian Jews and A-list philanthropists, was dedicated to Russian-born Jews who have won the Nobel Prize.

"The fact that we nearly doubled the participation from last year tells you how successful this program is," said Matthew Bronfman of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, chair of Limmud FSU's International Steering Committee. "It is successful because we are pluralistic. Everyone's Jewish journey is personal. We try to supply and provide a forum for everyone to connect in some way and in a way that motivates participants to engage for life and to become leaders in their communities."

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Free High Holiday tickets in New Jersey: The United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey is offering free High Holiday tickets to unaffiliated Jewish families in North/Central New Jersey. The federation is working with synagogues across the denominational spectrum in Morris, Essex, Sussex, and Northern Union counties. To see the list of participating synagogues and to reserve tickets, check out the link on the federation's website.